As chants of ‘Viva Bielsa’ and ‘Are you watching Manchester’ got louder and flares lit up the Yorkshire sky, Leeds United celebrated a return to the Premier League after 16 years, 4 owners and 9 managers. The next part is arguably more difficult. Managing to stay up. The Manchester United fan in me hope they go down but the football fan secretly wants to witness this fairytale reach a conclusion.
And they’ve shown signs of promise for what lies ahead. The framework of course is the incredible campaign they had in the Championship and a VERY good transfer window. The reason this is so important is, you don’t want to overspend and disrupt the core of the team. Fulham did it few years back, went back down immediately. Villa did it last year, ALMOST went down. Bielsa’s pull power is unmatched. In Rodrigo, their club record transfer, Leeds have a veteran striker to not only act as a focal point to all their attacks but someone to share the work load with Bamford.
The rest of the team looks set too. A midfield comprising of Hernandez, Klich, Harrison and The Yorkshire Pirlo, Kalvin Phillips. The defence looks set with Ayling and Dallas on either flank. Too bad they couldn’t land Ben White.
The challenge however would be to keep the intensity of a Bielsa team intact throughout the season. Their natural tempo combined with the high standards of the Premier League both physically and mentally could be very draining. If you think you’ve seen a high press, wait till you see Leeds.
To conclude, I’d ask y’all to watch Leeds this season no matter how crazy it gets. You’ll learn something.
(But surely they’re going down, right?)
It's not over, till it's over.
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